Yun-hyung Choi

In order to control the spread of COVID-19, social distancing measures were implemented in many countries. This study investigated changes in air pollution during the social distancing after the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea. Ambient PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NO₂, and CO that are particularly related to industrial activities and traffic were reduced during the social distancing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In March 2020, immediately after social distancing, mean levels

BACKGROUND: Although cadmium and lead are known risk factors for hearing loss in animal models, few epidemiologic studies have been conducted on their associations with hearing ability in the general population. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the associations between blood cadmium and lead exposure and hearing loss in the U.S. general population while controlling for noise and other major risk factors contributing to hearing loss. METHODS: We analyzed data from 3,698 U.S. adults 20-69 years of age

Background: The prevalence of hearing loss increases rapidly with aging. Hearing loss is common in all age groups, even in young adults and adolescents. A growing body of evidence has suggested that heavy metals have ototoxic effects, yet few epidemiological studies have investigated the association between heavy metals and hearing loss in a general population that includes adults and adolescents. Objectives: We examined the association between environmental exposures to lead, mercury, and cadmi

This study provides nationwide evidence that co-exposure to heavy metals and/or organic solvents may exacerbate the effect of noise exposure on hearing loss in workplaces. These findings suggest that workers in industries dealing with heavy metals or organic solvents are susceptible to such risks.

OBJECTIVES: Although occupational noise is a well known risk factor for hearing loss, little epidemiological evidence has been reported on its association with hearing loss in the general population, in part, because of the difficulty in exposure assessment. This study introduced a quantitative occupational noise exposure assessment tool using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database and evaluated its applicability for epidemiological research using data from the National Health and

One pathophysiological sign of sarcopenia is chronic inflammation. Given that levels of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) are increased in chronic inflammation, we evaluated the association between increased RDW and sarcopenia among adults in the general U. S. population and analyzed data from 11,761 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2006. Sarcopenia was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) divided by weight (%) that was l